Many companies advertise on the Internet and pay substantial amounts to optimize searches for their business with the various third-party search engines. Although certain statistical information is reported by the search engines, e.g. numbers of clicks, views, searches, etc., it is well known that the number of hits do not always translate into real business opportunities as there is no comprehensive system or method in place that allows the companies being reviewed to necessarily directly correlate a particular online “inquiry” with the need for feedback or follow-up. Thus, it would be helpful for businesses being reviewed to be informed of potential leads from viable business inquiries based on online searches. It would also be helpful if individuals conducting business research are able to target, e.g. reputable companies, for a follow-up review based on an online inquiry.
Notwithstanding the obvious need for businesses and prospective customers to connect with each other, companies are restricted in their marketing efforts, e.g. “do not call” legislation prohibits companies from telemarketing. Additionally, companies desire to maximize their leads and to reserve their prospecting efforts for those individuals or corporate entities that have a viable potential for doing business. Much of the lead generation tools that currently exist in the prior art determine value prospects based on data mining techniques of user's searches and/or purchasing habits. However, the current lead generation tools do not have the ability to refine the process to determine the seriousness of the prospective customer for doing business. The system and methods described herein satisfies these long felt needs in a new and novel manner.